THERMOGENERATORS
Loreto Mateu1, Markus Pollak, Peter Spies
Power Efficient Systems Department, Fraunhofer IIS, Nuremberg, Germany
Abstract: The objective of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuits is to find automatically the MPP
and therefore extract the maximum amount of power available in the energy supplier (e.g. TEGs, solar cells).
Nowadays, the most common techniques of MPPT employ DSPs or microcontrollers. However, simpler
solutions employing analog circuits already exist but the power consumption and complexity of these
solutions is still not fully optimized.This paper presents a MPPT circuit implemented with four low-power
operational amplifiers.
3. MPP ALGORITHM
Fig. 6. Output power-duty cycle output of the TEG for Fig. 7. Step-up converter based on coupled inductors.
two different temperature gradients. Possible failure in
the operation of the MPPT.
6. CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank the Fraunhofer IIS
for financially supporting this research under the
Nanotec project.
REFERENCES